1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to metering devices and, more specifically, to mechanisms for resetting registers.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The prevalent prior practice for resetting postage meter registers entailed the manual resetting of numeral wheels by authorized postal service personnel. To gain access to the meter registers for such procedure, a seal was required to be broken which released a plate normally covering a lock keyway. Thereafter, a key was inserted into the keyway and the lock cylinder rotated to access the register mechanism.
Once the register mechanism was accessed the postal service personnel employed a technique known as "picking" which entailed the rotation of selected numeral wheels with a hand-held stylus.
The plate which guarded the keyway engaged an internal shaft for the purpose of releasing a plurality of lockout combs which prevented rotation of register wheels beyond a zero balance indication. The lockout combs were required to be released in order to free the register wheels for the picking operation.
It may very well be appreciated that manual resetting of postage meters was a cumbersome and time consuming procedure which required the opening of the meter with a possibility of damage to the meter and register mechanism.